RE: [xsl] Replace content of element, then transform it...

Wendell,
Thanks for a very informative answer.
Yes, the XML I am receiving is poor by design, but has been chosen because the
input system opens for non-valid XHMLT/XML.
As I am trying to manipulate those who have taken this decision I sort of have
option 0.
Found a bugreport on Firefox not supporting d-o-e where they have a
doe.xsl-file, so I am following that route at the moment. Looks sort of OK,
but since I am currently playing with controlled test-data and not real life
examples, who knows when this will break...
I will look at the saxon::parse() function that you are referring to... And
yes, if the XML/Source is valid or not...
Thanks
Trond Husx
Trond,
Indeed, your case illustrates exactly why disable-output-escaping is a trap.
One might think that if you have
<e>&lt;f>g&lt;/f></e>
and then
<xsl:template match="e">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:value-of select="." disable-output-escaping="yes"/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
you then get <e><f>g</f></e>.
And this might even be true, in some cases -- but not in all. The reason?
"<e><f>g</f></e>" is a sequence of characters, and XSLT does not generate
sequences of characters, but nodes arranged in trees. You get a sequence of
characters only when some subsequent process creates one from a tree generated
by the transformation.
In this case, the tree would be shaped like this:
- element 'e'
- text '<f>g</f>'
The process that turns this into an XML representation (tags and text:
"<e><f>g</f></e>") is called "serialization".
In your case, however, having generated such a tree, your XSLT submits it to
be processed with a set of templates. No markup is created at all until the
*final* result of your processing pipeline is written in the form of
characters.
There is no 'f' element to be matched and processed in this second step.
Among other consequences of working with trees (by and large beneficial ones),
this means that the design pattern of "hiding" markup inside XML by escaping
it is a poor one, which is bound to create problems. At best it works only if
it is carefully managed.
How to manage it (assuming you can't change your input data)? You have two
choices:
1. Serialize your intermediate results before processing it again.
(Split your stylesheet into two, and run the second on the serialized output
of the first.) This can work, but it doesn't scale well, as it requires both
serializing and then parsing again in the middle of every transformation. Even
with solid-state storage devices, this tends to be
time- and resource-intensive. And it locks you down to certain kinds of
transformation architecture (namely on a file system).
2. Find another way of parsing the pseudo-markup hidden in your data.
For example, use an extension such as saxon:parse(), which will turn a string
into a tree of nodes (assuming it's well-formed XML).
Cheers,
Wendell
On 8/30/2012 9:01 AM, trond.huso@xxxxxx wrote:
> Right. I take that note.
>
> I am also noticing that disable-output-escaping is deprecated in XSLT2.0, so
I guess I shall try and figure out another way of doing this...
>
> Trond
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Kay [mailto:mike@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: 30. august 2012 14:37
> To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [xsl] Replace content of element, then transform it...
>
> One of the main reasons that we've been telling people for 12 years not to
use disable-output-escaping is that it couples the transformation too closely
to the serialization, meaning it's difficult and inefficient to reuse your
code as part of a pipeline. A lot depends on what this d-o-e stuff is really
doing. Having said that, from the information supplied I don't know why you
are getting the error you are.
>
> Michael Kay
> Saxonica
>
>
> On 30/08/2012 12:08, trond.huso@xxxxxx wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have the following XSLT.
>> <xsl:template match="body">
>> <body>
>> <xsl:value-of select="." disable-output-escaping="yes"/>
>> </body>
>> </xsl:template>
>>
>> <xsl:template match="leadtext">
>> <leadtext>
>> <xsl:value-of select="." disable-output-escaping="yes"/>
>> </leadtext>
>> </xsl:template>
>>
>>
>> <xsl:template match="node()|@*">
>> <xsl:copy>
>> <xsl:apply-templates select="node()|@*"/>
>> </xsl:copy>
>> </xsl:template>
>>
>> Which does what is intended. Just that I want to not output it, but start
w= orking on it in a phase-two process.
>> So I tried this
>>
>> <xsl:template match="body">
>> <body>
>> <xsl:value-of select="." disable-output-escaping="yes"/>
>> </body>
>> </xsl:template>
>>
>> <xsl:template match="leadtext">
>> <leadtext>
>> <xsl:value-of select="." disable-output-escaping="yes"/>
>> </leadtext>
>> </xsl:template>
>>
>>
>> <xsl:template match="node()|@*">
>> <xsl:variable name="foo">
>> <xsl:copy>
>> <xsl:apply-templates select="node()|@*"/>
>> </xsl:copy>
>> </xsl:variable>
>> <xsl:apply-templates select="$foo" mode="phase2" />
>> </xsl:template>
>> <!-- Error message:
>> Description: Cannot create an attribute node (id) whose parent is a
>> documen= t node
>> -->
>>
>> After reading about how this works, I now understand why I am getting the
e= rror. Is there another alternative to make this possible in one document,
o= r do I have to send the output to a new document?
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Trond Husx
>> System Developer
>> Mobile : +47 450 35 715
>> E-mail : trond.huso@xxxxxx
>> www.ntb.no
--
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Wendell Piez mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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